To start off, it would appear that Berezow is an actual scientist who is convinced that evolution is real and accepts the reality of climate change. That’s a nice start! We can even agree with him on his analysis of why the latter is so politically charged:

I believe the issue is contentious because of the policy implications, not because of the science itself.

Unfortunately, when conservatives hear “global warming,” many of them really hear “cap-and-trade” or some other policy they don’t like. The key to defusing the situation is to make sure the science is separated from the policy. Just because the planet is getting warmer doesn’t mean we must implement cap-and-trade. Instead, we could try other methods of reducing our carbon emissions, such as encouraging more nuclear power and natural gas development, both of which are a huge improvement over burning coal.

We will even limit our nitpicking to pointing out that “cap-and-trade” was a “market based solution” which originated in the Reagan administration, because we’d love to be bipartisan about all this. Do lots of libruls oppose nuclear energy? Yeah, probably a fair charge, though our impression is that there’s far more diversity on that issue than in the 1970s.

The rest of the interview has a similar aura of broad-brush accusations. Liberals claim to be for renewable energy, but a subset of liberals oppose hydroelectric dams because of their impact on rivers, and another subset opposes wind farms “because the turbines are ugly and they kill birds.” Liberals delude themselves that organic food is healthier or more sustainable than agribusiness, even though “organic farms are inefficient, and we simply cannot feed the world with organic food” (Berezow does at least acknowledge that factory farms overuse antibiotics, increasing the risks of resistant bacteria evolving).

To make matters worse, science itself is infected by liberalism, which may have an “indirect” influence on science education:

There are very few conservative scientists. One survey showed that only 6% of US scientists are Republicans, while 55% are Democrats. In the social sciences, the ratio can be as lopsided as 30 Democrats for every 1 Republican. Obviously, a discipline that is so ideologically skewed in one direction is going to produce research that reflects that internal bias…

Also, teachers’ unions — which are allied with the Democratic Party — refuse to accept any reasonable reforms in education (such as merit-based pay and charter schools).

That last sentence is a doozy; what merit pay and charter schools actually have to do with science education, we cannot venture to guess — perhaps Berezow simply wants to undermine the statistical studies which suggest that charter schools are no better than public schools?

Berezow saves his real ire for people who surely do deserve it: the anti-vaccine movement, which really does represent a threat to public health. We were surprised to learn, however, that all of liberalism is responsible for and maybe even dominated by the tiny subset of science-denying loons who refuse to vaccinate their children:

because the progressive Left adheres to two basic myths: The first is that “natural is better” (which explains the fascination with organic food and alternative medicine) and “unnatural is bad” (which explains the fear of “chemicals”). Combine those myths with their hatred of pharmaceutical companies, and you have all the ingredients for an unreasonable opposition to vaccines. A public health official once noted that the anti-vaccine movement seems strongest in places that have Whole Foods.

Oh, those stoopid hippies! They are endangering everyone’s health! Never mind that some of the strongest pro-science debunkers of anti-vaccine foolishness are unabashed liberals (see PZ Myers, for instance). And while we’re happy to condemn anti-vaxxers as just plain unscientific and wrong, they have nothing like the influence on the left as a whole that the right’s science-deniers have. A Democratic candidate supporting childhood vaccinations may upset a few misinformed fanatics. A Republican candidate saying that creationism has absolutely no place in a science classroom will be primaried before the mic goes cold.

Do people’s politics affect their perceptions of scientific issues? There’s plenty of evidence that it does, and we’ll readily agree that the left has its share of loons. In terms of their influence, however, we’ll hold off on worrying about the “anti-science left” for a while. Get back to us when it looks like there’s a serious threat that public school health classes will be required to teach that crystals can realign the body’s chi.

Doktor Zoom Is the pseudonym of Marty Kelley, who lives in Boise, Idaho. He acquired his nym from a fan of Silver-Age comics after being differently punctual to too many meetings. He is not a medical doctor, although he has a real PhD (in Rhetoric and Composition).
He loves upvoting your comments but Disqus is broken and his upvotes don't "stick." Just assume he upvoted what you said, because it was excellent and witty.

I must have missed the part where Libruls want to defund the NSF, or are we supposed to have this whole conversation without mentioning ideological differences like "views on whether basic science is a thing worth doing"?

Wow — a minority of them! Obviously back when the Republican party was riven by the debate about whether facts should constitute a building block of policy.

Beowoof

And yet the "scientist" said bacteria could evolve from antibiotic over use. I am surprised that they would still let him be a member of the he man woman haters club and creationist society.

JustPixelz

One survey showed that only 6% of US scientists are Republicans

First, that sounds suspiciously like a "statistic" which makes me suspicious.

Second, obviously about 5% of respondents were joking.

BadKitty904

4% didn't get the question, what with being blinded by science and all…

ChapterUndVerse

and 1% were hit with technology and hiccups.

shelwood46

Also, too, 6X30=55. I did not know this.

WhatTheHeck

Of that 6% of US scientists who are Republicans, how many of them were abducted by aliens?

I’m conducting a scientific survey.

Dudleydidwrong

Yeah, and I'm betting that 95% of that 6% (ya following me here?) are on the faculties of Liberty U, Bob Jones U, and the other creationist skules that keep science departments around to make things look good.

Beowoof

Really smart people tend not be republicans. Who Knew?

Biel_ze_Bubba

Smart, educated, rational and logical people become scientists. The wingnuts, unsurprisingly, go out of their way to to ignore the embarassing truth that such people are extremely unlikely to be religious, conservative teabaggish types.

OneDollarJuana

Smart, educated, rational and logical people also tend to become more agnostic and atheistic the farther they get from childhood indoctrination.

Biel_ze_Bubba

A process that's complete by age 14, more often than not.

ThundercatHo

This must explain why otherwise intelligent adults remain xtians.

ChernobylSoup

When he implies that liberals are anti-chemical, does he mean chemicals that catch rivers on fire or chemicals that make rivers catch fire in your head? I'm partial to the second kind.

Biel_ze_Bubba

AOTK.

I have a bottle of vitamins that, according to the label, is "chemical-free". I'm saving it for analysis, someday in the distant future, when science can spot those elusive non-chemical components.

bobbert

So, free-quark vitamins have hit the shelves.

BarryOPotter

Think those vitamins will fit into one of the LHC experiments? FedEx a few to CERN with a note to smash some of them together and see what new fields are suggested. Hell, you might have the key to gravitons on your kitchen counter this very moment and yet you deny (some of) mankind the progress it so richly deserves. You're such a little devil…

OzoneTom

If them pinkos would just go to Creationland then they would know all of the science that they need to.

Michele Bachmann said that she talked to a lady whose daughter got a vaccine and read this book and now she's ret@rded.

ph7

That's how it usually happens.

HELisforHEL

The girl or Michelle Bachmann?

Beowoof

Talking with Michele can have that effect.

Biel_ze_Bubba

I'm pretty sure Michele was retarded even before she talked to that lady.

Monsieur_Grumpe

I'm an electrical engineer who watches Dr Who, reads science books for fun, lectures everyone about how great the metric system is, I record Nova programs and I calculate the ABV (alcohol by volume) and IBUs (International Bittering Units) in the beer I brew. When the robots attack you will want to be my friend. Yes, I am a science nerd. And oh yes, I am a Libtard. I hug trees and recycle everything and my cats come from the Humane Society. Dear Dr. Alex Berezow, Fuck you.

memzilla

Can you help us defeat Zombie Mitttbots?

Monsieur_Grumpe

Yes. Yes I can. First we need some stool samples….

LibertyLover

From memzilla or Mittens?

Doktor Zoom

Well, there's the Bosse or the Dalfred ($39.99), or if you don't mind getting spendy, the Ingolf ($59.99) or even the Henriksdal ($119.99).

ThundercatHo

I'm sitting on an IKEA chair in front of an IKEA desk surrounded by IKEA bookcases and filing cabinets. My kitchen is IKEA as is at least 50% of our furnishings. Some people may call us cheap but we really do like the stuff.

BoatOfVelociraptors

Eastwood is your man.

bibliotequetress

"First we need some stool samples…."
I'll just get you one from his stump speech.

LibertyLover

Might want to stay away from Monsieur Grumpe in the case of a Zombie Mitt attack… Zombie Mitt is gonna go straight for Monsieur Grumpe's brains.

emmelemm

I was with you, except for the metric system thing…. I feel I have no choice but to say, "Shut the fuck up, hippie!"

An_Outhouse

the metric system is post-colonial. fuck the imperialists and their imperial system. excuse me while i go occupy a tree.

You can always use them. Our house was built in 1901, an olde dwelling here in Seattle that too was built using the Imperial system. Problem is the sticks are full-dimensional, the 2×4s really are two inches by four inches, so when putting fire blocks into the outer walls have to use 2×6s and rip them.

AlterNewt

We've been doing this so long that we have a pretty good stock of full dimension lumber at the shop. It's like gold.

bobbert

I only go to five decimal places, because anything more is wasted on a slide rule anyhow.

"‘I likes a pint,’ persisted the old man. ‘You could ’a drawed me off a pint easy enough. We didn’t ’ave these bleeding litres when I was a young man'…. grumbled the old man as he settled down behind a glass. ‘A ’alf litre ain’t enough. It don’t satisfy. And a ’ole litre’s too much. It starts my bladder running. Let alone the price.’"

Monsieur_Grumpe

I will upfist you forever for that. Cheers.

savethispatient

The irony being that the old man in your quote is talking about UK pints (568ml) not US pints (487ml). So the old man is right, that 68ml is important, but not as important as that 81ml.

Because many Injinears
1) would like to think that we are designed rather than the obvious accidental byproduct of billions of years of Earf evolution
2) are aspergers people whose wisdom/skills/intelligence is only limited to their field of study so any views outside it should be seriously questioned
3) tend to be more religious than other science people (throw in the literal-ness of their minds which makes them a touch more fundamental)–don't ask me about my former manager who wanted to save my soul… sigh.

ThundercatHo

We have at least 3 engineers in our extended family who are very precise but pleasant fellows. They are also very churchy and I've always wondered why since there is no empirical evidence to support their beliefs.

BarryOPotter

Maybe being around the religious amuses them, serves as "…an escape from the weariness of agnosticism" that can sometimes get a bit thick living in a culture dominated by impious religiosity demanding outward displays of conformity.

Or they're just trying to get a little somethin' somethin' from those freaky Catholic girls…

UnholyMoses

As someone who sucks at math, but can count to ten, I loves me some metric system.

I remember when in about fifth grade (1980) they tried teaching us all about it, with videos and workbooks and whatnot. And the whole time, we wondered, "WTF? This ain't ever going to be used in this country. I want recess, dammit!"

Looking back, we were correct, but not because of recess.

It's because the metric system makes entirely too much fucking sense. And we can't have that here in the USofA, can we?

JustPixelz

According to Repubican scientists, Jesus rode a dinosaur. Climate change is a hoax because the Bible says the Earth is under God's protection. And tax cuts create jobs.

deliman4

You forgot to mention to mention that Jesus spoke english!

ChapterUndVerse

I see what you did there, but I agree with you, because Republican scientists are close to assholes.

They're not still giving advice on how pickup atheist girls in elevators, are they? Lost my appetite for that blog after all the moralizing and dating advice.

SpeedoFart

Too late. MWAH HA HA HA!

smitallica

Yes, when I meet a person who knows nothing about science, or the world and how it works, or evolution, and instead espouses some ancient creation myth, storybook sentimentality, black-and-white morality, and a non-factual view of the geopolitical landscape and our place in it, I automatically think, "I bet this person is really liberal."

It's 100% RealClear that this man IS much smarter than his democratic colleagues, who don't even have enough sense to write one book for which Big Industry will pay enough for them to retire in style. Duh, dummies. In fact, it's likely he didn't even have to do the writing.

BaldarTFlagass

Has someone come up with one of those "Science for Dummies" books yet? If so, I know who has been reading it.

LibertyLover

After clearing my Chakras, and untwisting from a side triangle pose, my Karmic third eye sees that Doctor Zoom has once again given us a mantra to meditate to.

MissTaken

I'm liberal and find My Little Pony more factually accurate than Scientology so I guess Dr. Berezow is right?

Also, teachers’ unions — which are allied with the Democratic Party — refuse to accept any reasonable reforms in education (such as merit-based pay and charter schools).

A public health official once noted that the anti-vaccine movement seems strongest in places that have Whole Foods.

I might not be a "scientist" per se, but I studied natural and social sciences undergrad, and one thing that was drilled into me back in college was that someone who cites unsourced "gut impressions" and "reasonable common sense" as evidence in support of their thesis, is a charlatan

LibertyLover

And likely to get an F.

BaldarTFlagass

Man, I thought charlatans kinda went out of style. Upon reflection, though, there's a lot of them out there, you just don't hear that term much. Maybe they just go by a new name these days.

bobbert

Republican?

PubOption

Televangelist?

lulzmonger

Derivatives trader?

emmelemm

Does it get any more passive-voiced weak sauce than "A public health official once noted…"?

No, no it does not.

Gleem McShineys

One time at public health official camp, I stuck an unsourced quote in my "pussy"*

*Dr. Alex Berezow

memzilla

Imagine the glee with which your professor would fail you if you put that in a paper.

Doktor Zoom

It is, however, in just the right rhythm for a limerick….

C_R_Eature

"A Blogger, who's named Berezow…"

bobbert

"Has stirred up quite the farrago…"

Edit: hmm, just realized I don't know how he pronounces his name. I was going with "Maddow", but I suppose it could be "mad cow", in which case MOOO.

C_R_Eature

"Was discovered abusing a Cow"?

Texan_Bulldog

Actually around here it's not the lefties not getting their kids vaccinated. It's the homescholing right wingers who don't think their kids need them because of God and because of that stupid chick Jenny McCarthy.

bibliotequetress

Yep. Wasn't a whooping cough outbreak linked to a religious group in the midwest refusing to vaccinate their kids a few years ago?

C_R_Eature

Billy Berezo was a chemist's son Wingnut's Tool, but now he is no more. What he thought was H2O was H2SO4.

LibertyLover

The stupid… it burns. Literally.

BaldarTFlagass

"There are very few conservative scientists."

You know what else? There are very few stupid scientists, too. This is not a coincidence.

Thought that the Repugs' usual PPT was with at least 75 slides? You know, "Death by PowerPoint" – an even more horrible exit from the mortal coil than death by a thousand cuts.

bobbert

I wish REM could fit your first paragraph into a tune.

Chichikovovich

It's the end of the Repubs as we know it. I feel fine.—

BadKitty904

"Somehow the Republican party hasn't attracted scientists to it's agenda"

Inquisitors and witch-hunters, however…

billy_reuben

Not to mention their position on stem cell research, their new found libertarian streak for defunding things like national labs, public education, and any agency responsible for studying public safety or natural resources. Clearly, the scientific community, not the GOP, is fraught with dangerous, hidebound ideologues.

ChiRon8

A few serious books have been written about the left's (particularly the postmodern academic left's) anti-science bias. (See the books "Fashionable Nonsense" and "Higher Superstition".) It's hard being a multicultural relativist and consistently pro-science.

That being said, at half-time, the score stands at Left Loons 14, Right Loons 134,786.

It's hard being a multicultural relativist and consistently pro-science.

To be fair, though, that multicultural relativism is also a source of some valuable meta-critiques within science, which is often sorely needed, especially in the mushier social sciences (like The Psychology of 20-Something Upper-Middle-Class White People- or Psychology, for short)

On the other hand, some of that stuff's also been glommed on by the Church of Scientology, for somewhat less highminded reasons.

Point being, I'm as skeptical of theorywank as the next person, but that stuff still does have somewhat of a place, insofar as it keeps the rest of the scientific community honest.

WhatTheHeck

Listen up hippies. There’s no science to be found in a doobie. Chemicals, yes. But no science.

There are very few conservative scientists. One survey showed that only 6% of US scientists are Republicans, while 55% are Democrats. In the social sciences, the ratio can be as lopsided as 30 Democrats for every 1 Republican. Obviously, a discipline that is so ideologically skewed in one direction is going to produce research that reflects that internal bias…

Another thing I learned from an undergrad science education was not to reverse causal relationships.

Negropolis

Yes, because she can get a little crazy when you do, like Fatal Attraction crazy.

So, Michele Bachmann is a Socialist Hippy. Should I assume she is a secret Muslim too? That Marcus likes women?

I am so confused. The next thing you will tell me that Mitt Romney was in favor of universal healthcare or gay rights when he was trying to win an election in a liberal state.

BadKitty904

They put the "hip" in "hypocrisy"…

BarryOPotter

The next thing you will tell me that Mitt Romney was in favor of universal healthcare or gay rights when he was trying to win an election in a liberal state.

Wait, are you trying to suggest that in the past, Romney, a goddamned Robot, used some form of evidence to form an election platform? Well, if it's the same unit, someone has clearly voided that warranty.

littlebigdaddy

The fact that 6% of scientists are Republican says a hell of a lot more about Republicans than about scientists.

kittensdontlie

A discipline that is so ideologically skewed in one direction is going to produce research that reflects that internal bias…, and that bias, would be towards the proven truth.

C_R_Eature

Dok, there's such an avalanche of Right Wing Nonsense literature these days that you're gonna need your own blog!

Doktor Zoom

Can't I just pretend that I've just taken over here?

Chichikovovich

If we all believe it, it will become true.

C_R_Eature

Schrödinger's Blog. We just can't open it, because then it will Change State.

C_R_Eature

Well, I can certainly pretend you've taken over if I can pretend I'm a Human…er….Cephalopod. …heh heh …

Biel_ze_Bubba

Stay inside your box, and nobody can know which it is.

C_R_Eature

"Hey Girl, is that a Cephalopod in your box or are you just happy to see me"?

bobbert

On the internet, nobody knows how many tentacles you have.

C_R_Eature

Or what you're doing with them…

BigSkullF*ckingDog

Global warming is not even a problem. We can just balance it out with some nuclear winter. BAM! What other global problems can I solve for you today?

When are we going to get an article, book, etc. complaining about the fact that a majority of cops and CEOs are Republicans, and that taints their view of the world? We clearly need to ignore anything they say due to their political biases.

Melt chocolate as directed on the box. Dip insects in chocolate place on wax paper and refrigerate.

Send Chocolate? Send me Grasshoppers first!

Blueb4sinrise

Not this year. Lost touch with my rural contacts. There were years out in Real America when walking through a field was an actual physical hazard …. a couple thousand of those big green monsters would come up. Come to think of it, paved roads were also a hazard. People going into skids on the grasshoppers.

In my family vernacular, Dr. Alex has earned the title "dong-schwaggler." It's fun to say! Try it! (the "a" has the "ah" sound fyi lol).

Gleem McShineys

Did he even go for the easy (and easily provable) low-hanging fruit of hippie anti-science: genetically modified Frankenfoods?

Fuck dude, if there's an oversight that big, you might as well also show how Wal-Mart causes diabetes, obviously.

poorgradstudent

Alright, so we libtards got most of the physical and social sciences, but you conservatives got Economics!

…Okay, I can see why you might be upset.

CommieDad

Ok, so all the pro-measles, pro-whooping-cough and pro-worm-infested-fruit folks I know are from North Idaho. So they must be Republicans. So, based on this scientific analysis, I say Mr. Berezow is full of it.

mavenmaven

He needed to write this book because the Republicans have decimated the NIH and he's probably having a hard time getting grant funding for actual science.

There is a big difference here. As an educated science type person who leans left, I don't listen to ignorant (maybe leftie) dipshits like Jenny McCarthy or the ultra sensitive folks at PETA. I know science is not always right and it's not always wise. I know mistakes happen, but I don't go shrieking about how its evil and demand changes in textbooks to suit whatever I'm fucking believing (not knowing) it is.

I leave that for the right wing assholes.

AznMom420

Vaccines have struck politicians so autistic that Michelle Bachman thought she was a rethuglican when she really was a vaccine hating liebrul the entire time.

Hi there all of you lurking Breitbart Avatar longtime non-commenters who've been visiting me lately!

We're funnier than you, smarter than you, better informed than you and – right now – we're winning.

Have a nice White-Knuckle Fall Election season. I'm looking forward to reading the sage commentary at the Big Government site on November 3rd.

BigSkullF*ckingDog

Our comments must be very confusing for people with absolutely no sense of humor or irony, or much intelligence to start with. Sometimes I almost feel sorry for them, then I remember how much damage they have done to the country in the last ten years or so and get over it.

Blueb4sinrise

Ya know, a couple people here have mentioned them, and they've visited my 'stream' too. I just figured that if they're bothering with me they have to be COMPLETE losers.

Chichikovovich

I'm pretty sure they're all just one pathetic guy under a bunch of different avatars. The avatars all have mostly the same print style and all have the same idiot sensibility. How pathetic is that, to visit dozens of Wonkette commentators under different aliases just to fill up their "recent visitors" tabs?

Some pitiful people in this world of ours.

C_R_Eature

That sounds right. Notice, too, that he comments listed under all the avatars are all lite 9 to 24 weeks ago. The Bog Goovernment site uses a wholly different comment system, so I'm assuming these avatars are left active just to keep an eye on us.
Trolling for the next unfortunate comment to work up into a full-blown Breit-dingnadian OUTRAGE, no doubt.

Doktor Zoom

He actually thinks that he's "freaking us out."

Sad.

C_R_Eature

Usually I just ignore him/them, but there's been such a dramatic spike in activity recently I just felt like a needling was in order. Too bad they don't comment anymore, they were fun. Sort of.

There are very few conservative scientists. One survey showed that only 6% of US scientists are Republicans, while 55% are Democrats. In the social sciences, the ratio can be as lopsided as 30 Democrats for every 1 Republican. Obviously, a discipline that is so ideologically skewed in one direction requires intelligence and/or compassion is going to produce research that reflects that internal bias is actual scholarship…

Ideology stops where facts begin. The flawed view of science always starts when ideology attempts to impinge on facts. And yes, the left has people who believe in the effects of aromatherapy or the blood-type diet and other such nonsense. But unlike the crazies on the right, they're not building their political philosophy around those manies, and they're not trying to pass laws that say everybody has to believe what they believe, or arguing that the orginial interpretation of the Constitution depends on their little hobbyhorse, whatever it happens to be.

I propose an affirmative action program to attract more people with an inability to entertain more than one idea in their heads at once combined with a slavish devotion to authority. That ought to do it.

NellCote71

That is why it is called STEM education. You have to have a brain to be in it.

Terry

"There are very few conservative scientists. One survey showed that only 6% of US scientists are Republicans, while 55% are Democrats."

The remaining 39% of scientists had doubts as to the purpose of the polling questions and hung up on the pollster.

Radiotherapy

CREature, Dewey where are you?

C_R_Eature

Napping!

BadKitty904

In your house at R'lyeh? Fhtagn?

C_R_Eature

That's a great guess.

But, I'm awake now.

EDIT: MWAA HA HA HA HA!

BadKitty904

While it's octopi-ing my mind, I see that Cephalopod Awareness Days are next month (Oct. 8-12). Party down – I'm sure, after all, you're no new squid on the block.

Time for this kitty to curl up next to his Big Cat and purr…

C_R_Eature

It's one of the highlights of my year. There Will Be Tentacles.

Radiotherapy

What a CAD.

Guppy

One survey showed that only 6% of US scientists are Republicans, while 55% are Democrats.

Pure science doesn't pay, either at the individual or the corporate level. Someone doing pure, hardcore research is paid in government cheese.

Any conservatives who are that good at math write trading algorithms and crash financial markets instead.

RALitherland

Having forced my lazy fingers to go to the Moonie article, I conclude that you may be too generous in conceding that Dr. Berezow is "an actual scientist". Yes, he has a PhD in microbiology; Duane Gish has one in biochemistry. Berezow said

I'm a "big picture" person, so the narrow focus of research, combined with its low success rate, did not fit my personality. I decided to change careers, and I became the founding editor of RealClearScience in October 2010.

"There are very few conservative scientists. One survey showed that only 6% of US scientists are Republicans, while 55% are Democrats. In the social sciences, the ratio can be as lopsided as 30 Democrats for every 1 Republican. Obviously, a discipline that is so ideologically skewed in one direction is going to produce research that reflects that internal bias…"

Perhaps this is because reality has a liberal bias.

sullivanst

Yeah, the right's rejection of global warming probably has quite a lot to do with the fact that externalized costs like pollution completely invalidate major assumptions underlying their economic and political theories (a clean environment is one of the purest examples of a non-excludeable good, a case where it's impossible for privatization to "solve" the tragedy of the commons), and therefore they must either refuse to acknowledge the mountain of evidence, or re-examine their entire political philosophy with a severely critical eye, and of course, they choose the former.

bobbert

It's kind of fun to mess around with economics that includes externalities, but ultimately you run up against the fact that we are not wired to realize that the commons are finite, because they've only become finite in the practical sense within the last couple hundred years.

So, you get flattened by "common sense" — the distilled wisdom of what used to work.

lulzmonger

Get back to me when the Greens publically condemn the teaching of critical thinking skills in schools … or claim that the Theory Of Relativity is destroying civilization … or promise to slash grants & funding for basic research … or demand the teaching of Pagan creation myths alongside paleontology.

Why the fuck does this shithead assume leftists are the political movement for chemophobia? For fuck's sake, he cites the goddamn Pew study that most chemists identify as Democrats, and he still thinks we are the ones who are anti-chemistry? You'd think that in ten years of grad school (not a good sign), he'd brush up against enough of us to dispel that bullshit. Fuck this stupid hack.

Sincerely,

-a chemistry PhD who actually is employed in his field of study

BaldarTFlagass

"only 6% of US scientists are Republicans,"

I think that 50% of that 6% work here with me.

ttommyunger

Sew minny werds just to pimp for charter schools and Nukular Energy.

ttommyunger

Shit! What happened to the "tweet" button?

DahBoner

Hemp won't Save the World???

pdiddycornchips

Mr. Berezow has done enough scientific research to know that wingnuts will pay you to write books and give speeches if you are willing to twist a few lefty nipples.

Hey, there, fellow leftists! Hope you’re all having a great day eating organic arugula, liberating lab animals from a university research facility, and withholding your children from getting vaccinated!
===================

Don't forget flag burning, supporting Piss Christ, and hating God. There's plenty enough time in the day for it all!

MLite

Well known Librul Michelle Bachmann is against vaccination, case closed. Also her husband is gay.

Librals beLIEve that everything is made up of tiny circles and balls ("adams") !! Yet another way elitist educationalists to insert homosexuality into sceince. BTW Where's the photographical proof of "adams"? !1?

Looking at it more clearly and using the sort of science that some microbiologists use when examining social issues, it becomes clear that 6% of scientists are mad scientists that want to take over and rule the world. Then again, some could be mistaken on the statement that they are scientists.

As an example, Dr. Berezow said, "As much as I love science, I did not love research. A scientist can spend his entire life working on a single molecule, and when doing experiments, there are far more failures than successes. I'm a "big picture" person, so the narrow focus of research, combined with its low success rate, did not fit my personality. I decided to change careers, and I became the founding editor of RealClearScience in October 2010."

I bet he would say he is a scientist, even though he is now just a pundit with a science background. Kind of like me, oh sorry, I do research every now and then and consider even negative results valuable.

Only 6% of American scientists are Republicans. And I bet they aren't the top 6%, either. They are probably, among scientists, what Ted Nugent is to music and Victoria Jackson is to comedy.

ttommyunger

Science. Who can explain it?

me

I guess I am a little baffled by the vitriol in the comments, as I DO see a lot of anti-science wackiness from fellow liberals. I'm an engineer/scientist and hardly a week goes by that I don't need to correct some point about vaccines ("it's the MMR! Oh, it's not? It's the thimerasol! Oh, it's not?" etc) or about organic foods or about nuclear power or about microwave ovens, etc (basically, many of the things mentioned in the article).

I can write off wacky right-wing anti-science as being often a function of religion and therefore not worth debating (it's not like NEW information will change THAT stance) or just because "liberals are for it!" which is also a waste of debate energy.

aglade

Not sure where all the vitriol here comes from. Geez, you guys,

If you are trained in science you are a scientist. We are fundamentally different from others in the way we think and interpret information after our training regardless of what we do for a living. Being a scientist isn’t so much a job as a way of viewing the world.

I also can’t get over how many people post things with glaring misconceptions in them, misconceptions that are so easily fact-checked. You don’t take out loans to pay for science grad school, you get a stipend and your PI or your department pay your tuition.

Not sure why that’s relevant anyway?

aglade

I don’t think anyone is saying that all liberals are chemophobic. But, in my experience, most liberals ARE chemophobic EXCEPT the ones who are actual trained scientists. I don’t know about conservatives…I don’t associate with many of them. I think they tend to have different pet issues though.

Most scientists are liberal. Most liberals are chemophobic. That does not, however, mean that most scientists are chemophobic.

(I’m a liberal scientist too)

jm313

The radical New Left that rose up in the 60’s and infiltrated the Democratic Party embraced spirituality rather than science and I see this a bit on the Left today. Political correctness has invaded science restricting truth. Many on the far-left see science as totalitarian because it is based in realism rather than idealism.